<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>A Cozy Coffin Named "Denial" by tluthal</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24113587">A Cozy Coffin Named "Denial"</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/tluthal/pseuds/tluthal'>tluthal</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Shoujo Kakumei Utena | Revolutionary Girl Utena</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst with a Happy Ending, Gen, enough metaphor to choke a horse, metaphors taken a bit too literally, smash the world's shell!</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-03 01:27:56</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>734</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24113587</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/tluthal/pseuds/tluthal</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for Empty Movement's rewatch prompts. Episodes 4-6, Prompt A - "Do you have a personal "Sunlit Garden"?"</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A Cozy Coffin Named "Denial"</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The sunlit garden is a graveyard. It looks peaceful from the outside, and is easy to slip inside. The ghost of music lingers in the air, the headstones laid close into the earth so that you only realize what they are when your foot lands on them instead of the long since flattened earth. </p>
<p>Ohtori is a mausoleum. The shining white dome dominates the hill above the ordinary world, guarding a forest that hides the mass grave of hopes and dreams, crushed under the weight of a castle suspended in the sky. </p>
<p>Leaving is always a fight, especially when finding your way back in is so easy. The school of hard knocks is always open, after all. </p>
<p>I'd been there before, I realized, when I stumbled on a headstone. I looked up and saw the twisted smile of a corpse greeting me with a black rose, and memories stirred at the back of my mind. Then I blinked, and sweet faces smiled back at me, shimmering resentment hidden in happy eyes. And once more I forgot, lost in the clash of a sword, fighting for something eternal. </p>
<p>It was my own twisted, hateful words thrown back at me that brought the memories of the ring of a corpse and a twisted rose growing into my ribs back. </p>
<p>"She was always so kind to poor, pathetic me. I thought she was making fun of me... Oh, knowing my friend's secret makes me so happy I can't stand it! Now you're just as pathetic as I am. Poor, pathetic Shiori..." </p>
<p>Her hand was at my chest, pulling out a twisted, broken blade, when I took it. I pulled the sword out myself, feeling it catch and grate on my ribs, felt the empty void where my heart belonged, and smiled. </p>
<p>"My sword doesn't answer to you. If you wish to duel, you'll face me in the arena, and no one else."</p>
<p>There's no bride in the arena anymore, just a broken doll staring blankly ahead in an ill-fitting dress. My hand burns where a ring should have protected it from the door. The duelist doesn't know what to think, I shouldn't be here, not yet at least. </p>
<p>"Shiori, you can't expect a miracle! You have to be the bigger person."</p>
<p>"The bigger person? When it's my sword that was to be turned against you? Don't make me laugh."</p>
<p>The duel is fast and brutal - even shattering and twisted, my blade is stronger than a mere sword. I know the fight itself is meaningless though, these battles were never won in the arena. It's time to put an end to it all, in a flurry of petals and a broken scream.</p>
<p>My sword remains, and my chest feels empty. The bells don't toll, even as I stumble down the curved stair. This was never about winning, though. It doesn't matter. </p>
<p>I need a forge. There are no forges in a cemetery, but the grave of a witch is nearby. I find the stones cracked open, the opening stained with old blood. </p>
<p>"When you need a miracle, trust in a witch." Miracles don't exist. </p>
<p>"You don't need a miracle." The broken stones say. "You already have a hammer."</p>
<p>A hammer isn't a forge, but it's a start. I chip away at the broken sword in my hands, with promises as sharp as the blade will be when I'm done with it, and though my hands are full of glass, the blade slowly straightens. </p>
<p>A corpse stops me, unhinged grin greeting me. "Do you hear that sound?" </p>
<p>The hammer falls again, a roar of flames behind me. This, too, is familiar, and I don't bother looking up. "What sound?" </p>
<p>"If your soul has not truly given up, you will hear the roar that races through the end of the world." The corpse insists, climbing into a wooden box in a burial shroud. </p>
<p>"Sorry, I don't hear anything." The roar of the incinerator is easy to ignore. The corpse collapses, limp and stinking. My mouth is full of glass, but my eyes are clear. </p>
<p>I look for the graves covered in orange roses, before I leave. I don't know how to put the sword back, but I don't have to stay here to learn, and it's straight enough now to cut the Gordian knot at the gates. </p>
<p>I left a hammer in the Sunlit Garden. It's there for you, too. </p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>